The Llama Chronicles: Monkeys and Todos Santos

Oh, friends and loves,

 
It´s been very long and a lot has happened. I´ve been busy, I´ve been lazy, and this has
definitely been one of those emails that I have avoided for so long I have come to dread
writing it. But the time has come and I miss you all and I know you miss me so I´m
going to do my best.
 
Shortly after my last epic edition, I took a weekend trip to the Chapare, a region of 
the Cochabamba department known for jungly things and a  hot climate as well as for harshly 
suppressed coca growing. I had two missions for the trip. The first was to eat fish. 
They have rivers and fish and I miss both lots. The second was to see monkeys. Oh me 
and my ill-conceived ideas for animal adventures...It was hot and humid and I was smelly and 
sweaty the whole time but I took incredible hikes with my wonderful wonderful travel 
buddy Abby and ate beautiful fish and the whole thing was a little surreal for me 
because for me the jungly things had always existed exclusively on tv and in national 
geographic but there I was with bugs I didn´t know really existed outside of the zoo 
and everything.

As for the monkey mission...Abby and I went to this national park 
which serves as a refuge and rehab center for illegally domesticated exotic animals 
like monkeys and it´s supposed to be great because you go and you can play with really 
chill wildlife and take great hikes. So we go, we walk into the park, are on our 
first trail on the way ON THE WAY to the monkey playground and something grabs me by 
the wrist so I turn around to see what weirdo is trying to get my attention on this 
trail in Bolivia and its a monkey, who proceeds to climb up my back and sit on my 
head. I shouted something and Abby turns around and sees this and doesn´t know what 
to do and all I can think is "what do you do when you have a monkey on your head?" 
Fortunately, as I was pondering my options, it took off into the jungle relieving me 
of the need to make a decision about what to do. That was not all for my head in 
Chapare, however. Sitting in a restaurant that night, with roosters and dogs and cats 
wandering around, I feel something land on my head, but when I ran my hands through 
my hair I didn´t turn up anything so I let it go. Three mintues later, Abby´s face 
contorts with horror and she says "it´s not a spider." 
Honestly, that was the best thing she could have said
because I caught sight of something bright green and 
defintiely in my hair out of the corner of my eye. Up
and out of my chair, knocked it off my head and it
turned out to be a tree frog. I must have the nicest-
smelling hair EVER. 
 




The week after that came Todos Santos on November 2. Back in grade school I knew of 
Día de los Muertos but never really got it. Don´t really know what the deal is 
everywhere else, but here in Bolivia, it was amazing. The day before, starting around 
lunchtime, I went with my abuela and Karina my "mom" (she´s 28) and the little girls 
around the neighborhood. In families where someone has passed away in the last three 
years, they set up an altar for the person in their living room or patio decorated 
with food, flowers, pictures, and bread. The idea is, as it was explained to me, that 
the person´s soul is tempted back to join the family by the food. Neighbors, like us, 
come around to visit with the family and the soul of the departed and are obligated 
to pray for the soul of the dead. The customary prayers are 10 Our Fathers, 10 Hail 
Marys, and 10 Glory Bes for each soul, usually it´s one departed but at one house 
there were 8...that´s a lot of praying. I didn´t know my prayers in castellano so I 
said mine in english which was a great novelty. The family of the departed thanks you 
and compensates you for your prayers (and this is where it´s like a strange trick or 
treating) with a small glass of wine and a plate of bread and cookies. You take a bag 
and collect bread as you go to eat for the next two weeks. You drink a lot of wine 
and a lot of chicha, this maize beer which is really not delicious. If you are close 
friends of the family you sometimes get fed too. I had a stomach infection and I was 
hurting, but I ate two full meals, two soups and drank more wine and chicha than I 
ever wanted to see in my life. Day two of Todos Santos is more of the same, some 
revisiting of the homes of close friends and then around noon, the altars come down. 
We were at our closest neighbor´s house. They fed us and then we and some other 
neighbors took down the altar by dividing up the bread and flowers and things on it 
and turning the tables it was set up on upside down. this is to confuse the soul so 
that it will go back to the cemetary when the family goes later that afternoon. The 
family of the deceased cannot participate in taking down the altar so they make 
themselves busy passing out what´s left of the wine and chicha. Apparently, you have 
to finish what´s left in the house, and because this is Bolivia, we made our offerings 
at the four corners of the altar to Pachamama before drinking every glass or gourd. 
The floor was such a mess when we left...After all of this we went to the cemetary to 
clean and decorate the tomb of Kari´s grandfather. Man, I´ve never seen a cemetary so 
full or so like a party. I mean, mariachis! If I had thought the chicha and trick or 
treating/bread collecting activities were over I was very wrong. We visited I don´t know 
how many graves to pray and collect our baked goods. It was amazing. It was very 
intense and I was very very sick but it was also very very cool and I loved having 
the opportunity to participate.
(Photos below: Todos Santos with the familia...extended)
Oh man, what next? This is way too long already so quick rundown. There´s been a first-
grade graduation, a stomach infection, I climbed to Jesus, got chased by a pug while 
taking my morning run, ate llama, haven´t seen one though, love of my world Abby left 
for the states, was very sad for a while, figured out how to get happy again though I 
still miss her crazy, all the presidents of Latin America are here for a meeting, the house flooded, 
the parents are building a new part of the house which is noisy and messy, Christmas 
is coming, work is good, am trying to develop a project, am learning quechua, saw the 
longest parade EVER (12 hours), made a Bolivian thanksgiving - lacked sweet potato, 
included chicken, AND...I think that´s all that´s happened here...I think. Dunno, it´s 
hard to say.

I don´t know what happened with my Spanish. I was cranky when I was sick because it 
was awful and then all of a sudden...it was like I saw the light. Still need practice, 
clearly, but I must have eaten something special or I don´t know what because I have 
just been talking up a storm the last week and a half. Thank God, too. I was starting 
to worry that I would be here ten months, get home, and still be crap. 
 
I´m off to Isla del Sol to take care of my visa with Danielle Kravetz (for you SLC 
people) this week and to Sucre and Potosi the week after that. May take off to Chile 
and Argentina after Christmas for 2 or 3 weeks...clearly I take my job here very 
seriouly...
 
Anyway, miss all of you, especially with Christmas coming up. I know number one on 
all of your wish lists is a ticket to Bolivia to come visit me. I feel like with a 
buddy, I could go find the llamas. I just need some support...Hope everyone is well 
and I´d love to hear from you all. I´m gonna try to get to my individual emails but I 
live for email and those who have tried will vouch for me, if you email me, I will 
email back!
 
I LOVE YOU!
 
LOVE!
 
Mollie